


Exigent Circumstances

by EnchantedbookLover18



Category: NCIS
Genre: #no.2, F/M, Flashbacks, Post-ep 18x06
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-28
Updated: 2021-01-28
Packaged: 2021-03-14 16:55:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29049510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EnchantedbookLover18/pseuds/EnchantedbookLover18
Summary: When Ellie has an important appointment, Nick is left alone with his thoughts - and memories.
Relationships: Ellie Bishop/Nick Torres
Comments: 4
Kudos: 72





	Exigent Circumstances

**Author's Note:**

> You'll probably recognise tiny parts of yesterday's post-ep, oh, and the episode of course. Enjoy!

_"Do you wanna know what I was going to tell Sloane? During my appointment today." Ellie shouted from her side of the wall but Nick was too caught up in his thoughts, in his rage and distress to answer._

_But truthfully, he’d been wondering the whole drive who she had tried to reach over the phone. And since he knew, he couldn’t help but wonder what she wanted to tell Sloane._

_"I-When they were trying to get me on that plane, I knew there was a bomb. And I knew if they got me on the plane, that I'd never get off. So, I - I fought. I wasn't just fighting for me. I was fighting...”_

_What, Ellie? Who were you fighting for? Say it. He wanted to get out of his damn cell, take her into his arms, desperately, and make her say it – but he didn’t, couldn’t._

_“Look, you only have one bullet left. You need to save it. Okay?” Ellie deflected, didn’t say what was on the tip of her tongue, and he let her. “We'll figure something out."_

_“Okay,” was all he managed to break out._

“Nick!” A distant voice entered his thoughts. “Nick! Hey.” A hand gently touched his shoulder.

“Huh? Oh,” he turned around and recognized Kasie standing behind him. One corner of his mouth turned upwards. “Hey, Kase.”

“Where have you been there? Lost in thought.” She knitted her brows in concern.

“Oh, nothing, nowhere…Just thinking, you know, about almost blowing up.” Nick tried to laugh it off in vain. “The usual.”

“Oh, sure. _The usual._ It’s totally normal for you guys to almost get blown up – _twice._ Well, of course, technically, only Ellie got almost blown up twice…Man, how do you always get yourselves in these situations?”

“That a hypothetical question? ‘Cause, you know, we didn’t exactly sign up for this,” he replied grumpily. “At least not for the getting hit by a car and nearly blowing up twice in a week part.”

“True.” The forensic scientist nodded expertly. “Well, I’m glad I’m not an agent – you guys have tough jobs.”

“No, you’re the genius forensic scientist, pulling the strings, getting us out of the mess that we got ourselves into. Saving the day.” Nick shot her a genuine smile.

Kasie blushed, and grinned, “Well, you know, just doing my job…”

“Nah, don’t hide your light under a bushel, Kase. If it wasn’t for you, and McGee, we might’ve died of thirst eventually.” He chuckled.

She waved aside. Then, with a questioning look, “What are you doing here anyway? Don’t you have the day off? After all that happened yesterday.”

“Oh, um, well, Ellie has an appointment with Sloane and I offered to drive her. Now I’m waiting.” Nick scratched his head, hoping that she wouldn’t question him further.

“Ah! Alright then. I’ll leave you to it,” she patted his upper arm with a grin and left for her lab.

_“Forget it. I gotta get up to that window. I’m shooting the wall,” Nick grumbled impatiently._

_“No! Just please-” Ellie called from the other side of the prison wall._

_“No!” This was it. He’d had enough. There was too much at stake here. The risk was too high that their criminals would show up again for their explosives and he just couldn’t… “Listen, I’m not gonna make another list here. Your weight could shift; your leg could cramp.” Even Ellie would probably sense his patience wearing thin in that moment._

_But she just interrupted Nick, her annoyance with him dropping from every word she uttered. “I’m not gonna get a cramp.”_

_“You don’t know that ‘cause you-”_

_“’Cause I’m a girl and girls get cramps?” Ohh, the tone in her voice, full of anger, promised nothing good would come out of their argument. “I swear to God I've had enough of your overprotective hovering man crap!” She yelled._

_“Look, it’s not because you’re a woman, it’s because-” Nick tried to push back but of course it was pointless. What was he even going to say? Because you’re my partner, my best friend? Or, because you’re my Ellie. Because I can’t bear to lose you. Yeah, probably the latter._

_Ellie didn’t give him any time to finish that sentence anyway. She was furious now, with him. That much was pretty obvious, even through these thick walls. "Because I'm me?! I kicked your ass in every-"_

_"You're not listening to what I'm trying to say to you! Just listen." Nick’s voice was hoarse with fury, desperation, worry. And exhaustion. When she didn’t say anything, in fact, just waited for him to speak this time, he added with determination, "I'm not gonna sit here and watch you almost blowing up again.”_

_Silence. For a short moment, neither of them gave a tone, too much weight on their shoulders from his words. From what they actually implied. Ellie didn’t have to answer him – he felt it in the air surrounding them that she’d understood what he was trying to say, understood the desperation, the need to keep her safe. It was much more than a friend caring for the wellbeing of another friend. “I'm not okay with you getting blown up, Ellie.” Nick repeated the almost exact same words, making sure she really got it now, that she’d let him do, for once, what he needed to do, for his own peace of mind. “I'm not okay with that."_

_Tears were shimmering in his eyes. He took a deep breath to regain control of his emotions – his anger, worry and…love._

_"What's going on over there?" Ellie called, but different than before, her voice sounded calmer now but also broken – as if his words had really affected her deep down to her core. Was she,_ maybe _, holding back tears just as he was?_

_"Close calls make you live harder.” He uttered and aimed for the wall. “Brace.”_

“Hey,” her voice next to his ear startled him.

“Hi,” he smirked and looked at the closing door behind her to Sloane’s door. Looked like they were alone – well, as much as one can be alone in a building full of federal agents. “Everything good?”

“Yeah, I think so,” Ellie smiled with a glimmer in her eyes. “Let’s go home.”

“Just one second,” Nick muttered, interlacing their fingers and with glance around the hallway, he opened the door to a closet nearby and let her inside.

She chuckled, turning around to look him in the eye. “What’s this about?”

“Exigent circumstances,” he grinned, a mischievous expression in his eyes. When she just wrinkled her nose – adorably as always – in confusion, he moved closer to her.

Still holding her hand, he took a few steps forward, so close that she took a step back, her back against the door. With the help of his left hand, Nick turned the lock and winked at her. “No interruptions.” By then, Ellie had already gotten the drift.

“Uh-huh,” she murmured knowingly.

“I’ve missed you,” he whispered as he moved his left hand up on the door next to her, encircling her, meanwhile drawing tiny circles on the back of her hand with the other.

“I’ve missed you too,” her voice was barely above a whisper. Her breathing hitched as Nick’s face moved closer so they were breathing the same air.

“You know we’re at work, right?” Ellie chuckled lowly as the hand that, until then, had been on the door next to her grabbed a hold of a strand of her hair, playing with it.

“I don’t give a crap,” he grinned in typical bad-boy manner. “I just wanna spend some alone-time with my girl, kiss her…” He said, breathing in her ear, dropping a kiss on her earlobe, then moving downwards to her cheek.

The sensation his beard, and his kisses, left behind on her sensitive skin made her body quiver with want. “I’d say your girl doesn’t mind.”

With a long look into her eyes, Nick finally gave in to the heat and closed the remaining gap between them. Ellie’s lips felt soft and hot against his, she tasted like chewing gum and curry, from the lunch they’d shared only two hours ago. 

_"Hey." A hand held him back, making him grunt in disapproval._

_"I can catch him." The stern expression on his face left no room for imagination. By the look that briefly crossed her face, she knew what it meant, what he wanted to do to that perp. With force, she said, "I'm not letting you pass me again.”_

_"I got this. You'll be fine." Nick grumbled and tried to push past her again._

_"This isn't about me.” The tone in Ellie’s voice was one of annoyance and exhaustion. But also determined. “It's about you. I'm not okay with you getting blown up either." She watched him challengingly. Those were the exact same words he’d used on her not so long ago._

_He tilted his head, his eyes moving over her face, watching her with a questioning look, trying to figure out if she was thinking the same things too, about him, that he thought about her. Nick’s eyes lingered on her lips, longer than usual – would she notice? -, then he said with a smirk, “Well what are we gonna do about that?”_

_For a split-second Ellie seemed taken aback. The way her pupils dilated when she looked at him – with, with longing? How her eyes lingered on his lips too, 3 seconds, 4 seconds…Then she bit down on her lower lip and her breathing hitched…When she suddenly flashed a smile back at him, he_ knew it _. Then and there. She wanted it too. Wanted him just as much as he wanted her. “Oh, I could think of many things to do right now…” she whispered and he was a goner._

_“You do, huh?” Nick chuckled, never breaking eye contact, afraid he would miss a single second of this moment, the moment he’d been waiting for._

_“Hm-hm,” her hands moved back to his torso, feeling his abs, “but I don’t think we should be doing that right now.”_

_“What a pity,” he took a step forward, his left leg moving between hers, one of his hands grabbing a hold of hers, interlacing their fingers._

_“Nick,” Ellie breathed his name out, longingly, her thumb moving circles over the back of his hand._

_“Yeah,” it was barely a whisper as he moved his face closer, inch by inch, and he could hear her – feel her – breath on his skin._

_Nick’s lips brushed over her earlobe and moved down to her cheek. She quivered in his arms and moaned into his ear. The sensation of having her so close, feeling everything of her, made him shiver. It went right to the core. Longing, the need to have her closer, even closer than this, to have all of her, filled his being. And then his lips met hers, finally, for the first time in almost three years._

Nick looked at the woman sleeping next to him in his arms. They’d gone back to her place after their little _rendezvous_ at work, making good use of the time they had on their hands.

He still couldn’t believe how lucky he got, that they finally made the right move in the right direction. Instead of going three steps forward, two steps back, he and Ellie had finally found _their_ perfect timing. He watched her closely, she’d just drifted off to sleep. And there he was, thinking of how _this_ had started, well, come to a start of _them, together._ Because, let’s face it, this thing between them had started way back when they’d first met. But now, there, Nick felt his heart swell with love and desire for this woman. This woman who had given his heart a home and made him feel at ease for the first time in too many years.

How funny it was to think that it had taken them one hit-and-run and two nearly fatal explosions to get together. But then again, exigent circumstances allowed for unique actions.


End file.
